For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher

The goal is to ensure that teachers enter the profession ready for the demands of the 21st-century classroom. The first report from Bank Street College of Education's Sustainable Funding Project  looks at ways of reaching that goal through yearlong co-teaching experiences, commonly referred to as residencies, in classroom settings with experienced mentors.The report—"For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher"—also identifies public funding streams to support residency programs nationwide and outlines how teacher preparation providers and school districts can establish mutually beneficial partnerships to support high-quality teacher preparation

Mapping Jewish Education: The National Picture

Based on interviews as well as a database of Jewish educational organizations, foundations, and programs, examines their accomplishments, challenges, future directions, and links within a Jewish educational system. Highlights the role of foundations

The Need for a Different Approach to Financial Reporting and Standard-setting

International Financial Reporting Standards are questioned. Possibly, there is a need for a different kind of standards and a different procedure for developing them. No doubt, there is a need for a more profound theoretical approach to these issues. Theory-building in accounting should include approaches whereby problem descriptions have a broad coverage and cross the boarders of traditional specialisations. In this paper, a theoretical approach is outlined. According to this approach, insights into control problems for every organisation and system can be gained by analysing relationships between global value chains and a hierarchy of one or several organisations. Time is crucial. Instrumentality is regarded as an inevitable and necessary guide line for any control system that relates resources to functions and visions. Instrumentality concerns the effects of tools on certain functions. In the paper financial reporting and standard-setting are placed in a wide context in which longitudinal relationships are essential for individuals, organisations and control systems. Basic financial accounting concepts and their relationships with business events are discussed. The importance of uncertainty for financial reporting is emphasized, and so is the fact, that control from top-levels is exercised at a distance. A tendency to instrumentalism is also recognized: measures and procedures, for example standard setting procedures, tend to be important in themselves, irrespective of ultimate economic functions in a wider perspective. The analysis in the paper is one application of a general approach to financial control for all types of organisations. The general approach is based on a number of previous research-oriented books published over several decades and the author´s specific own experiences from internal and external processes with organisations in focus. Consistency and integrative power of the ideas have been tested in relation to certain books in various fields outside the core of the subject: applied systems theory, theatre, sociology, economic history, institutional theory and economics.financial reporting; International Financial Reporting Standards; standard-setting; accounting standard setting bodies; supervisory boards; corporate governance; transparency; market value accounting; mark-to-market; fair values; historical values; accounting theory.

Māori & Psychology Research Unit Annual Report 2012

Annual report of the Māori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2012. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community

Māori & Psychology Research Unit Annual Report 2012

Annual report of the Māori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2012. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community

Towards a General Theory of Financial Control for Organisations

In this paper, a theory of accounting, control and accounting-related areas is outlined.It is based on a number of previous research-oriented books published over several decades and the author´s specific own experiences from internal and external processes with organisations in focus.Consistency and integrative power of the ideas have been tested in relation to certain books in various fields outside the core of the subject:theatre,sociology, applied systems theory,economic history, institutional theory and economics.The general approach can be described in simple terms as follows.There are global value chains, from resources to output that are in use.These chains change with time.Uncertainty and unpredictability prevail for the present state and for possible changes; to some extent it is possible to estimate risks of the future. At any moment, each organisation has taken some limited position on a chain.Each organisation has a hierarchy which lies above operations. Over time, chains, organisations, hierarchies, output and personal functions vary. According to the approach, insights into control problems for every organisation and system can be gained by analysing relationships between global value chains and a hierarchy of one or several organisations.Time is crucial.financial control; management control; public administration; financial entities; financial reporting; dependencies; function-driven organisations; pay-driven organisations; transfer-driven organisations; supervisory boards; mass media; auditors; natural systems; panarchy; pseudo-commercial units; inter-organisational control; long-term control; short-term effects; hierarchies; global value chains; vertical control; horizontal control; corporate governance; remote control; controllability; transparency; values-in-use; values-in-exchange; fair values; historical costing; opportunity costs; product costing; transfer pricing; local optimization; time-bound optimization; longitudinal relationships.

Higher Education Exchange: 2009

This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share.The Higher Education Exchange is founded on a thought articulated by Thomas Jefferson in 1820: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."In the tradition of Jefferson, the Higher Education Exchange agrees that a central goal of higher education is to help make democracy possible by preparing citizens for public life. The Higher Education Exchange is part of a movement to strengthen higher education's democratic mission and foster a more democratic culture throughout American society.Working in this tradition, the Higher Education Exchange publishes interviews, case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders